Boy, 7, shot in face with BB gun

MAYFAIR -- A 7-year-old boy is recovering after being shot in the cheek with a BB gun.

"I just want to stay in the house," Sahladen Figueroa told Action News Wednesday.

Sahladen is afraid to go outside after he was shot in the face with a BB gun Tuesday evening.

The BB is still in his face, resting along his jawline.

ER doctors were unable to remove it Tuesday night.

"I have to have surgery too, right Mommy?" Sahladen asked his mother Reiny Rosario.

Reiny, a single mom, moved her three boys to Mayfair from North Philadelphia just two weeks ago because she thought it would be safer.

"What they're explaining is...it's difficult for them to try to get out because it could possibly do more damage to take it out themselves so he has to see a plastic surgeon," Reiny said.

It was around 5 p.m. Tuesday when Sahladen heard young voices out the back of his home on the 3200 block of Tyson. So he went to have a look, opening the back door and peeking out.

He saw a group of about seven teenage boys shooting cans off a fence next door.

Sahladen says one of the teens pointed a silver BB gun right at him and fired off a shot.

"I heard something then I went back inside. As I looked behind me, I got shot right here," he said pointing to his face.

"He ran upstairs with a towel full of blood, screaming that he had got shot in the face," Reiny said.

Sahladen fears the boys will come back and harm his 10 and 14-year-old brothers.

And he is worried about his mom.

"I don't want my mom to get shot either," Sahladen said.

She is hoping neighbors call police with information and that perhaps someone captured the group on a surveillance camera.

"I don't know who these people are, who these kids are, if they live nearby, if they're our neighbors. I don't know anything. That's the scariest thing, that they could live within close proximity," Reiny said.

Police are planning to be back out canvassing the area to see if surveillance cameras captured the group with the BB gun.

Anyone with information should contact Northeast Detectives.